Dick Smith has just sent an Open Letter to its customers.
The letter refers to a
no-questions-asked cash-back promise 
if goods purchased during this receivership period have any problem, and if the goods can't be repaired or replaced quickly.
What does this mean? Well, it means that Dick Smith during its receivership will ... ahem ... give purchasers the rights they have under Australian consumer law. In other words, nothing ADDITIONAL to that which the receivers would HAVE to give is being offered.
Note that this refers to goods purchased ON or AFTER the 5th of January 2016. It doesn't help those unfortunate purchasers of Gift Cards for Christmas, nor does it help anyone who had paid a deposit for goods. Australian law does not, unfortunately, protect consumers in cases where they have purchased from a company which then subsequently goes into receivership.
Will this Open Letter work?In my view, it's flim-flam. It's promising absolutely NOTHING that the receivers don't have to offer by law, although a huge attempt is clearly being made to imply that something extra is being offered. It's as though the receivers want to say, "Look, we know it's been awful, and you've been left high and dry by us because you're simply an unsecured creditor, so we feel awful about it and want to make it up to you by giving you this wonderful extra special assurance."
They don't feel awful.
The receivers simply want to recover as much money as possible, and that means trying to rebuild the trust of the consumers so that more people will buy from them.
Should you buy from them?Well... there's nothing to stop consumers from buying from Dick Smith in its receivership, if there's a great deal for something you want. Let's put it this way - I would be willing to purchase something from Dick Smith even now if the price made it worth it, and if the item were
in stock. I would NOT be purchasing something they didn't have on hand - because the receivers aren't about to shell out money for re-ordering out-of-stock items from manufacturers.
I'd also be thinking very very carefully about the brand reliability of anything I purchased, because I would have strong reason to feel I might need to deal directly with the manufacturer if there were a fault. Yes, the open letter tries to murmur reassurance... but that reassurance is something I definitely DON'T buy from Dick Smith. They certainly seem to promise they'll refund if they can't replace or repair, but you'll notice in the Return Policy page, they expressly mention that consumers are strongly recommended to deal directly with the manufacturers. The implication is quite strong... the receivers are trying to move existing stock, and consumers need to be aware that this is the situation and that the receivers won't be spending money fixing any problems.
That would be my caveat.
